Press Release from « Les enfants d'abord » association for freedom of education
November 28th, 2006

The parliamentary commission on sects visited on November 21st a religious community based in Sus (in the Pyrenees region). This was published in the press on November 22nd. It was reported that children living within community were « confined » in the community, on the main pretext that those children were educated inside the community. Following this visit, members of the commission affirmed their will to require in the report a hardening on controls applied to families practicing home education, or even a total rearrangement of the law surrounding freedom of instruction.

In the name of the fight against sects, a shocking amalgam assimilates every single kind of home education to a sectary confinement. This is sadly not the first time such an attack is targeted at home education, using the sectary pretext. And it is not the first time thousands of families practicing home education are targeted to become collateral victims of this coarse amalgam.

The association « Les Enfants d'Abord » is promoting and fighting for freedom of instruction since its creation in 1988. The association firmly denounces this shocking and dishonest amalgam, and wants to insist on the following aspects :

The very specific situation in Sus does not reflect in any way the practice of home education as it is done each day by thousand of children and parents. All methods considered (CNED (national center for distance and remote education, private distant classes, autonomous learning, etc.) there are up to 30000 children taking advantage of this educational freedom. The motivations and pedagogical methods of those families are far more varied and open minded that what the representatives have seen in Sus. If the motivations can from time to time be based on religious reasons, they are far more frequently based upon philosophical and pedagogical aspirations. The choice of home education aims at giving children the most profitable instruction. The vast majority of the families propose and offer their children teachings that answer their leanings and needs, respecting their learning rhythms and strongly open-minded to the world. Considering this, the so-called confinement that was reported by the commission does not depict the lives of children educated outside of schools, children that are more in phase with a society that lives and socializes outside of school time rhythms. Numerous families choose unschooling for their children to react to the severe malfunctions of the Institution. Despite sensational announcements, the accessibility of schools to handicapped children is notoriously failing. So is the handling of intellectually precocious children. It also happens that sometimes, school takes a bad turn and drives families in tragic situations : violence is daily reality, relentlessly reported by the media , desocialiazing and confining the victims. Let's not forget that the majority of children living in sects ARE going to school. Facing this evidence, representatives would never have the idea of calling into question the overall practice of schooling . Why do they call into question freedom of education on the sole observation of a marginal situation ? This is not going to solve any problem for society or school, nor for the families.

We doubt the pertinence and validity of a hardening of family education controls to solve the problem of sectary drifts.

In a similar context, the controls applied on family education had already been hardened in 1998. The families, that must each year declare to the mayor and academic inspection the fact that they practice home education, are already controlled each year by inspectors of the Education Nationale, who verify the progression of the provided teachings. Furthermore, families must go through every two years social controls that try to determine the children's social environment. Let's put forth that teachers or families sending their children to school do NOT have to go through such controls, at a frequent and steady rhythm. Since 1988, this pressure on families did not eliminate sectary risks, for the basic reason that unschooling is not a cause of sect membership.

This pressure did not eliminate the will of these families to instruct their children at home. Home education is growing and structuring itself in France, gaining the stature it has in numerous other European countries. There are many associations of home educating families, representing thousands of families. They frequently meet, locally, nationally or even internationally (like the annual Hes-Fes festival in Great Britain). Children and parents exchange their thoughts, advice and methods daily on the Internet. A European symposium was held this year in Reims, France, with the participation of scholars of all nationalities. Papers are regularly published. We have in many occasions solicited and obtained appointments with ministry technical counselors, who have in every occasion understood our goals and actions. Based upon this experience, we thought that home education could hope to be recognized as a valid and respectable educational choice, made by responsible parents that are motivated by the well-being of their children and implicated in the success of their educational projects.

The response that is prepared by the commission unfortunately lets us foresee the probable uselessness of our work, as this commission seems blind and deaf to the reality of home education. We vividly encourage the commission to reconsider its decisions that it has already announced in the press, upsetting the daily lives of thousands of families. If a legislative modification on family education is to be made, those families are strongly determined to be consulted on the new text. The precipitation and amalgams made in 1998 will not happen again. Home education is a constant right, since 1882. It is not a choice of confinement or self-withdrawal, it is a choice of opening to the world. We will not accept that in the name of a fight that is not ours, this educational freedom is called into question.

The Board of the association,Les Enfants d'Abord
Association for the freedom of education

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